Vincent stood near the window of the hotel, arms crossed watching the lights of Paris dance beneath him. His jaw switched tightly as he stood there in thought.
Victoria was pacing around behind him when he turned to her.
[/i]
“I'm going for a walk.” he said in a firm quiet voice.
“Now?” she said stopping to look at him “At this hour.?”
“Yeah.” he said grabbing his hoodie “I just need to clear my head.”
She made no attempt to stop him she only nodded slightly in his direction.
“Yeah, fine, whatever.” she said “I need to call our lawyer anyway, see if we can't take care of this Queen for a Day situation.”
“Good luck with that.” Vincent said
“Thank you.” she said “And you be careful out there, watch your temper I don't want to have to bail you out of a French jail.”
He smirked slightly and walked out the door without a word.
The breeze was light has he walked the streets of Paris hands in his hoodie pocket, Hood put up.
This city was still awake, late closing cafes, the murmurs of tourists, the rumble of mopeds moving between cars, but Vincent moved through it all like a ghost detached and observing.
The loss to Kevin Carter for the Internet Championship hung in his memory. That match WAS meant to be his redemption arc, internet champion, spotlights, another box to check.
He kept walking, letting his mind wander thinking about the loss to Aiden Reynolds, another L on the record books. Then against Helluva Bottom Carter he had made a decision. Cave in his pretty little skull.
He didn't care about the DQ. Not really. what mattered was the moment, the impact, the memory that split second when the fans realized -oh he doesn't care about winning, he just wants to destroy him.-
That moment taught him more than any title ever could, he didn't need to be a champion he needed to be unforgettable.
Now people were whispering when they saw him backstage, moving out of his path remembering what he did and now it was Jayden Harris in the crosshairs.
Jayden had confidence and fire. Vincent couldn't deny that, it was a little too much confidence and that's what made it fun. Jayden thought he was fighting a man, he didn't realize he was fighting a monster that came back from the dead.
Jayden wouldn’t leave Paris the way he came in it, not after he dragged Vincent's family's name through the mud, and if he really thought the management rules and safety he'd learn otherwise just like Carter did.
Jayden wasn't all that rested on his mind. He had his concerns about Victoria as well, something was off with her she was still doing her job, moving the pieces, and staying ahead but her edges weren't as sharp lately.
The whole queen for a day mess had her hands full, she had strings to pull and people to silence, but Vincent saw what others didn't. That the pressure was eating at her and he owed her more than loyalty.
She was the one who pulled him out of the spiral after the island, after the multiple weeks of isolation she didn't flinch when he came back more animal than man. She had brought him back to himself and now she needed him.
He would stand beside her not has a Lyons, not as a tag partner, but as a brother. As a twin. If she started to slip, he'd be the one to catch her before anyone else noticed or anyone tried to take advantage.
This match with Jayden wasn’t about championships, it was about revenge. Revenge for the transgressions against his sister and his family and it was about reminding the world that Vincent Lyons Jr survived hell, and came back sharper and better.
He was here to hurt people until they remembered his name when they closed their eyes at night. That's what Jayden Harris was going to find out when Vincent made him bleed in Paris and not only would Jayden bleed, but Vincent would make sure that his screams echoed long after the bell.
Into The Void was right around the corner and he intended to drag Jayden into the void itself kicking, screaming, and begging for the light that would never come.
__________
The cameras open on a familiar but eerie silence with that thick clinging fog coiling through a ruined landscape. The camera moves slow and deliberately, creeping pans to reveal Vincent Lyons Jr amid the mist cloaked and a tattered black coat his eyes burning with fire.
“It's easy to forget people like me exist.” he said “When the world is loud and the stage is bright and everyone's screaming someone else's name they forget until the silence comes.”
He tilts his head to the side with a smile.
“Jayden…” he said “You stand in the light and act like a boy who's finally being told he matters. Like the world is waking up to what you always thought you were. But I've been awake Jayden. I didn't sleep not when my boat cracked against the reef, not when that island swallowed me whole, and not when the voices stopped talking. I stayed awake long enough to die and come back again.”
He exhales softly.
“You think what I did to Carter was cowardice?“ he said “You think the chair shot was some betrayal of sportsmanship? No it was survival. It was purpose. I hit him because it was the first time in years I felt clarity. The island stripped me of weakness and the silence taught me things you can't learn in locker rooms and training gyms. Besides you know damn well he deserved it and you can't tell me that you didn't like seeing it happen at least a little bit. Because like I said if there's one thing that you and I can agree on it's that Helluva Bottom Carter is in fact a piece of garbage."
He pauses again mostly for effect
“I crashed Jayden.” he said “My boat, my life, and my sanity out there beyond the noise beyond the chairs and the promos and the championships. I died and I came back with only one voice in my head and it told me to -make it matter-. So you think this is just a match? Just another notch on your rise to relevance? No. This is an execution Jayden and you're the one on the chopping block.”
A short pause.
“You say I should blame Victoria and that I should be angry at her?” he said “You think loyalty is weakness, and that if I was strong I’d turn my back on the only person who ever believed in me without condition. You don't get it Jayden. My sister is the last thread of my humanity. You try to cut that I become something else. Maybe you're just angry that I'm a better brother to her than you are to Mikhalia.”
He laughed slightly to himself
“And then you made your little incest comments.” he said. “Is that the thread you really want to leave dangling? Because I'll tell you now Victoria and I have heard it all before. We heard every Jamie and Cersei Lannister joke and every twincest comment thrown our way in the past.”
He shakes his head.
“It's all just childish remarks from people who think shock value makes them clever.” he said, "You just mock what you can't comprehend Jayden. You laugh because you're too small-minded to understand what real royalty looks like and what devotion sounds like. But when you're choking on your teeth in that ring we'll see how funny you still find it.”
A twitch of the eye and a quiver in his lip.
“My sister didn't beg me for help. She didn't need to.” he said “Because I'm not here to protect her, I'm here to avenge her. I'm here to deal with all the weak men who want to disrespect her, who want to disrespect us. I'm the response nobody saw coming.”
He pauses again and a soft wind powers through
“Do you know when it's like to talk to the wind?” he said “To scream into the waves and get nothing back but your own echo? I do and I'll never stop hearing it; that's silence lives in me now it's part of me. You live in noise and camera flashes, you've never faced silence Jayden. Not the kind that rips you to shreds.”
He keeps his tongue sharp and direct.
“I want you to understand something Jayden Harris.” he said “When you step into the ring with me, you're not facing a man you're facing every second I spent alone. Every night I spent remembering how people forgot me, how they moved on like I never existed. You're facing the storm that raised me, and you're facing what comes after everything dies.”
He takes a few deliberate steps towards the camera the fog curling around him like a shroud.
“You won’t win Jayden.” he said “Not because you're weak, but because I'm inevitable. Because I'm the shadow that follows every step you take to the top to let you feel safe and let you feel victorious, but it's always there lurking, watching, waiting to strike.".
He laughs to himself.
“So bring the fire Jayden. Drench the world in gasoline.” he said “Say my name one more time. Once that bell rings and the fog creeps around you, just know I'm already there and you are not going to face the same Vincent you're mocking. You're facing the ghost that came back wrong.”
Which one final glance he turns and walks back disappearing into the fog his voice echoing through.
“I'll see you at into the void Jayden Harris. Be prepared.”
Then the camera's fade to black amid the howl of the wind.
-then silence-
__________
The key card unlock the hotel door with a beep has been sent Lyons to Junior stepped inside the room was quiet the kind of quiet that felt wrong the walk had been long and slow giving him time to clear the debris that collected in his mind but the Silence of this room felt louder somehow.
It didn't take him long to come to the conclusion Victoria wasn't here the room felt as if it had been holding a breath of its own as a sense of absence hit him in the chest harder than it should have. His eyes scanned around the room.
A jacket was draped over a chair and her boots resting near the bed and on the night Stand rested her cell phone.
That was unusual, Victoria was normally not without her phone. Has he stepped closer to the phone he saw it a glass ashtray with the hotels logo waxy with fingerprints and two cigarette butts inside both bent and crushed into the glass.
But Victoria didn't smoke she had a rebellious face as a teenager, and there was a couple weeks when she divorced that Ace Michael's guy shortly after WWH closed.
That's why he knew that this was desperation frustration and presser a moment she didn't want anyone to see but she had left evidence and Vincent knew her well enough to pick up on it.
That ashtray told him everything he needed to know the Queen for a Day pressure the Fatal four-way match the eyes on her to see if she could continue to dominate as everyone expected, or if she was going to fall in spectacular fashion like everyone wanted.
But where had she gone Vincent racked his brain she was his twin where would she go to quietly keep in her thoughts.
The Rooftop.
He quickly made his way to the hallway and into the elevator, magic road its way up to the roof the elevator doors pulled open and a breeze pushed into his face and there she was perched on the ledge with her back to him in a single cigarette between her fingers its tip glowing in the night was Victoria Lyons.
He said nothing to her and she didn't turn he stepped forward and just stood behind her without speaking the two standing there like statues for a few moments supporting each other without demand.
He didn't ask what she was thinking he already knew, he just waited because he knew she would eventually break the silence.
And then she did.
“What?...” she said.
“I didn't say anything.” he replied “Not yet…”
__________
The wind came steady off the sea as Vincent stood watching. Charlie was gone, and there was no effigy left to converse with. Nothing to make him feel like he wasn't alone. He was and he wondered if he would ever make it off this island.
His mind drifted back through the years, moments, people, things that had gotten here to this point.
He saw his father again, Vincent Sr was a true symbol of pride back before the Lyons legacy fractured into rival bloodlines and bitterness. Vincent had been the unbreakable spine of the Lyons family and after his passing everything had begun to fracture.
He remembered the news of the car crash, the dullness in Victoria's voice when she told him.
The funeral felt like a blur of black disappointment, the first time he learned grief could ride in your chest like a stone that never passed.
He'd always look to his father as a hero when he was a kid back when it was just the three of them Vincent, Victoria and Eddie.
The Pride.
They used to say it was such wide-eyed hope when they were kids. The Three Lyons, bound by legacy, strength and ambition. They were to take the rest of the world by storm. Win every championship, nobody with more gold than them.
But dreams can be fickle, Vincent curled his fingers slightly with a soft exhale the memories still circling.
WWH came and went. He had actually made history there, as the first Affliction champion. Victoria in his corner as his support before she laced her own boots up. He kick-started the new generation ofLyons Den Talent under Coach Kaiser. Vincent Jr was the prodigal son. But then like everything else WWH crumbled.
So did Coach Kaiser procure new contracts for Vincent and Victoria after WWH?
No. Instead he went with the former felon Cleo Phillips. Some street kid from The Bronx snatching the opportunity he and Victoria had bled for. PWS wanted her not them. He was told it wasn't personal that it was part of some sort of rehabilitation program and part of Cleo's probation deal.
Fine let that be as it may. But then appeared Alexander Lyons from the unknown. His uncle Zachary's son. He grew up knowing his Uncle Ray, Eddie's father, quite well. But as far as his Uncle Zachary, he was out traveling spending time with ring rats and apparently they making more babies than Nick Cannon.
So Alexander arrived, angry brooding and desperate to matter, he was given the second PWS contract.
But again, everything crumbles and this time it was PWS. So when SCW was reaching out to the Lyon's Den for contracts, it should have been finally their opportunity he and Victoria would finally stop being sent to mudshow companies that failed before they even started they would finally go to a company that knew what they were doing. SCW would be their return.
But this time Eddie and his sunshine smile was the one that got the deal with SCW came knocking. There must have been no space for VLJ anymore in the story. The Golden Boy, the favorite son.
He was even starting to resent Victoria and that was the final crack. He had to go so he got on the boat with Charlie.
He didn't remember much about what they said on the dock the day they set sail they drank and laughed and we're looking forward to the open sea and then Charlie was gone…
Then he felt a way in his chest his knees began to buckle slowly he wasn't even sure how long he had been here anymore but he had became part of this island and the world had passed him by.
He had become a ghost and no one even whispered about him anymore then he felt a dizziness and the ocean twisted into shapes that didn’t make sense. Vincent felt a faint taste of salt water on his lips as everything went black……
…….
…..
…….
…….
When the light returned it came like static over a broken television. A clatter of an engine somewhere and the smell of fish and boat fuel drifted into his nostrils.
He blinked once, twice, three times. A silhouette appeared before him. A man in a jacket leaning against the edge of the boat with a cigarette burning beneath his lips.
Vincent didn't move he just looked and then saw the man look over at him and speak.
“Dimitri! He's awake!” the man said.
“The American?” another voice called back.
______
The cameras open on a cold empty room with Vincent Lyons Jr sitting on a wooden chair in the middle of this space amid the silence he leans forward slightly with his hands clasped together.
“You had a lot to say about family Jayden.” said Vincent “You made a cute fast and the furious reference, but the truth is you don't know my family at all. There is no history of the Lyons family in SCW pre Victoria, Eddie, and myself. Many in SCW know your father but I can count how many knew mine on one hand. Myself, Victoria, Eddie, and Aaron Asphyxia."
His words come calm and measured.
“That's the nature of this business I suppose. Our name was bigger elsewhere in a place where the Harris name was unknown and didn't mean shit.” he said. “Your father has you stated was an underhanded asshole, a real piece of shit the whole nine yards.”
He takes a short pause
“My father..” he said “My father had his own demons. He helped build an empire but few got to see his dark side. His other half, the one he called Syth. That was his shadow. It was a man who didn't care and only wanted blood and sometimes I feel perhaps Syth still lives somewhere inside me. It was like I could hear him knocking when that chair cracked open Carter's skull."
He lets his words linger about the air.
“Do you really think my family is built on applause and standing ovations?” Vincent said “No we're a fractured dynasty. Just look at the facts, let's take a look at Eddie. Eddie Lyons is a man too busy shining his own halo to notice how many people he steps on. He calls it righteousness, Victoria and I call it a delusion. He thinks that he's the hero of the story but he's just another narcissist convinced the sun shines out of his spotlight.”
He shakes his head.
“And my other cousin Alexander?” he said “That guy?! He hates everybody. He hates the family. He's over in PWS following Alexandra Calaway around like a sick puppy holding their tag team championships with her. He's nothing more than a black cloud trying to scream his way into mattering.”
He scoffs in disgust.
“And then we had some new arrivals this year. Matthew Zayvion and Nayeli.” he said “More of my uncle Zack's mistakes wandering and hoping to find meaning in a name they don't understand. They don't even know what they are or what they want they're just lost little cubs in a forest fire.”
He stands up now with an exhale.
“So who really is rooting for me?” said Vincent “My self righteous cousin? My other cousin who won a tag title out of spite toward Victoria? My deceased father? My uncle who choose to favor their own children? It really only is Victoria and I, and my mother I suppose. If I’m fighting for any dynasty, it’s MY line of the family. Not Eddie’s, and not any of my uncle Zacks mistakes. That means Victoria and Me. That’s it.”
He begins to move toward a wall has the camera follows him.
“So you want to burn my family tree to the ground?” said Vincent “Go ahead. You're only adding gasoline to a fire that was already burning. However since you want to send a message to me about burning my family tree to the ground, I'll send you a message how I feel about your family name as well.”
That's when the camera sees it on a chunk of raw ruined concrete spray painted and red the name Harris. His back to the camera Vincent stands in front of it and unzips.
The piss hits the Harris name and trickles to the ground between Vincent's legs. Vincent moving and wriggling around to cover the entire name, careful not to step in his own mess on the floor.
He finishes, his arm shakes twice, he zips back up and turns to the camera really cocky grin on his face.
“I'm not coming into this match for the sake of legacy.” Vincent said “I'm coming for the end, and I'm coming for the execution of Jayden Harris. You have been warned.”
Then there was a sharp cut to black and then....
-silence-
